International Women’s Day recognises and honours women’s social, economic, cultural, and political contributions throughout history and in various fields.

In honour of the day, the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) will be staging a trophy race on tomorrow’s 10-race card to commemorate the progress made by its six female stewards.

The race, the International Women’s Day Trophy, is an Overnight Allowance contest for three-year-olds and upward going one mile. Fourteen runners have been entered and the race will run off as the final race on the day with a post time of 5:20 pm.

Elizabeth Fitz-Coy Wauchope, a consultant at the JRC, said she is pleased to see the male-dominated racing sector recognise the excellent contributions that female stewards bring to the sport.

“I think that’s absolutely wonderful, because racing has always been a male-dominated industry, and it’s good to know that women can say, hey, you know what, I can do that too and I want to be like that,” Fitz-Coy Wauchope told the Jamaica Observer’s The Supreme Racing Guide.

“The stewards look real fantastic on race days in their jackets, and they’re in official positions and everything, and they look good. And all our stewards are well-educated women who can apply the rules and the laws of racing in a fair and unbiased manner, in performance of the duties,” she added.

At present there are six female stewards, Nichola Green, Sharlene Simms-Bailey, Trisha Dixon, Lorna Bagwandeen, Annakay Barrett, and Alicia Lindo.

Three of these (Green, Simms-Bailey, and Dixon) are race days stewards, meaning that they work only on race days, while the remaining three are operations stewards employed full-time by the JRC, with Lindo gaining recognition as an internationally accredited steward.

The JRC will also be honouring senior secretary Janet Morant.

Fitz-Coy Waunchope explained further: “An operations steward is employed directly to the racing commission full-time, and they actually handle the hearings, the interviews, the approvals, and the arranging of the panels. Race day stewards only work on the race day to regulate. They can have other jobs. They can do other things, but just be available on race days.”

“Steward training is just what happens when we get to the commission, and we train them basically to know the rules of racing and the racing Act,” Fitz-Coy Wauchope ended.